Gone – Forty-Third Chapter
Kent Farm
Rory stood at the window, watching Lois talk to her father. Sam Lane was a three-star general, which was why Martha had invited him to stay for dinner.

Clark was currently arguing that point with her, in fact.

"He's a three star general, Clark," Martha reminded her son. "He deserves some respect."

Lois and Sam reached the gate.

"Heads up," Rory said, quickly leaving the window to stand with Sam and Dean. "They're coming inside."

The Lanes walked through the kitchen door to see Jonathan and Martha standing in front of the stairs with Clark just off to their right. Rory, Sam and Dean stood to the left of the Kent parents, and all of them greeted the Lanes with smiles.

"This is some place you got here, Mr and Mrs Kent," General Lane said affably. "And again I'd like to thank you for keeping an eye on my little Lo."

Martha smiled. The General focused his attention on Jonathan, holding out a cigar.

"Can I offer you a Chavelo?" he asked. "Hand rolled with some of the finest tobacco in the U.S. of A."

Jonathan smiled and reached out to take it. His smile faltered and he drew back his hand, saying, "No, I, uh... my heart isn't exactly what it used to be."

General Lane nodded and looked back at Martha. "I'm going to have to take a raincheck on your hospitality, Mrs Kent," he said gruffly.

"You're welcome any time," Martha replied, shaking his hand.

"Thank you," he said. He looked at his daughter and said, "Let's double time it, Lo."

Lois walked over to Rory and hugged her. She whispered in her ear, "This is about Chloe. You and Clark need to find the connection to LuthorCorp."

Lois stepped back at and smiled at Rory. Lois glanced at the Winchester brothers, then at Clark, silently thanking all of them. She left through the same door she and her father came in through.

"Good night now," the General smiled pleasantly.

"Good night," Jonathan smiled back. General Lane followed his daughter out.

The Loft, after dinner
"So what did Lois say?" Sam asked Rory as the four of them climbed the stairs to the loft.

"She said we had to find the connection to LuthorCorp," Rory replied.

"Well of course she did," Clark interjected. "She probably thinks that the military turning up is all to do with Chloe."

"To be fair, Clark, it probably is," Rory pointed out. "Do you think he'd call the cavalry just because she stayed out past curfew?"

"Yeah, well, tell you what," Dean began gruffly, "You two can go check on Luthor, and we'll stay here and try to hack into the LuthorCorp database."

"No, I will go and see Lex, alone, and Rory will stay here and help you two," Clark amended.

"Clark, this whole over-protective gig, it's getting really old, really fast," Rory complained.

"Too bad," Clark said angrily. "I'm not letting him near you until he finds some way of proving that he's changed."

Rory rolled her eyes and Clark muttered, "Bye."

Without further ado he sped out of the loft.

"What was that about?" Sam asked, not showing his concern.

"Clark is my brother," Rory said evasively. "He thinks it's bad for me to be around Lex at the moment."

"Why?" Dean asked the obvious.

"We found out three months ago that he was investigating us," Rory sighed, seeing no way around it.

Dean sensed something she wasn't telling them. "And that's the only reason why Clark's in defence-mode?"

"Yes," Rory lied simply, putting it off as long as possible. She didn't want to have to tell Sam about Lex.

"Rory," Sam said warningly.

Rory sighed again and said wearily, "I went out with Lex for about... I don't know... six months or so. I broke up with him three months ago; when we discovered his investigations. Clark is not very happy with me being around him because of that past. So I haven't so much as seen Lex in three months."

"Isn't that because you were trapped in a cave wall by your biological father?" Dean reminded her. "That had nothing to do with Clark."

Rory shrugged. "Potayto, potato."

"How did we not hear about that?" Sam asked, hiding his emotions. "It should have been all over... well, everything. Lex Luthor, billionaire, who's just sent his father to jail for the murder of his grandparents, who's just taken over LuthorCorp, going out with a sixteen year old?"

"I was seventeen, actually," Rory pointed out. "And we kept it a secret... for a while. And the tabloids were the only ones that got hold of it before we broke up, so of course nobody believed it."

Sam looked away from her, fighting a very strange internal battle. One part of him was extremely upset over this supposed 'betrayal'; kept saying that if she really felt the way he did she would never have gone out with somebody else.

Another part was reminding him about Sarah, (to which the first part responded that nothing really happened) and anyway, she knew Luthor a lot longer than him, and Luthor was actually around.

And then there was the other part that remembered Jess; that used her once-beloved face as a weapon to guilt him into leaving Smallville and never coming back.

Rory watched Sam, her poker face firmly in place. Inside, she was suffering just as much as he was. Rory had realised, not too long ago, that she seemed to have a 'type' of guy – a guy who was older and more mature then herself, a guy who was mysterious and secretive and, well... bad for her.

Even Jared, who hadn't really been mysterious or secretive, had ended up leaving to save the world. So there it is, Rory thought heavily. I like guys who are older, secretive and have a major hero-complex. Hooray.

Dean looked from his brother to Rory, just about exploding in frustration. Honestly, it was like Sarah all over again – only he could tell that Sam liked Rory more than he had liked Sarah. After all, Sam had been pining over Rory almost as long as he'd been mourning Jess.

The saddest thing about this whole, crazy ride was that evidently guilt was tearing Sam apart. Dean knew his brother better than anybody else did and he could clearly see how much Sam liked Rory... and yet how he felt that doing anything with her was disloyal to Jess's memory.

And now things were further complicated by Rory's past with a guy who was obviously bad news. He put his own father in jail, for God's sake! What kind of a person betrays his own family?

In Dean's mind, the worst crime anyone could commit was the betrayal of a family member. Not only had the younger Luthor done just that, but his father had gone one further and betrayed both parents.

There was silence for several minutes as Sam stared moodily out the window and Rory stared sadly into space, both of them studiously avoiding looking at each other.

"Maybe we should all just pretend that we never mentioned your love lives and stop sulking?" Dean suggested. Neither of his companions appeared to hear him and he sighed.

Standing suddenly from the couch, Sam said quickly, "I'm getting kinda tired, so I think I'll head off to bed. Goodnight."

Without further ado, he made for the stairs, leaving Dean and Rory alone in the loft.

Dean waited until he could no longer hear his brother's footsteps, then turned to the girl next to him.

"Hey, Rory."

Rory looked back at him and arched an eyebrow, slightly puzzled.

"Listen," Dean started, "since I first met you, I've never actually had a chance to talk to you, and there have been some things I've been wanting to say to you without Sam or Clark around."

Rory nodded slowly and said, "Okay, shoot."

"I know that Sam told you a lot," Dean said quietly. "Did he ever mention his girlfriend?"

"Once or twice, I think," Rory replied. "But not her name."

"Jess," Dean told her. "He was going to marry her, just before she died."

"And she died in the same way your mother did," Rory remembered. She realised quickly what she'd said and apologized, "Dean, I'm sorry."

He shook his head. "Nah, it's okay. The thing is..." he trailed off, looking at her carefully. "You look a little bit like her. Same blonde hair, same skin, same kind of innocence-"

"Innocence?" Rory asked, fighting laughter. "I may not hunt demons and vengeful spirits, but I'm pretty far from innocent."

Dean waved his hand airily. "I mean that Sam sees you as innocent. Look, the point is that you're a lot like Jess, which might be one of the reasons why Sam likes you."

Rory's eyes widened. "What did you just say?"

Dean ignored as he continued, "The thing is that I know Sam very well, and when it comes to beautiful blonde girls – aka you – he's afraid of two things. One, that you'll die the same way our mother did, the same way Jess did."

"Why would I die like them?" Rory asked. "I'm Kryptonian. I can take care of myself."

Dean shook his head and said, "Two, he's afraid of... I don't know, betraying Jess?"

"Betraying her?"

"Or her memory," Dean backtracked. "Cause he used to be in love with her... the same thing happened about a month ago, with this girl called Sarah. Only she didn't look or act like Jess at all."

"I'm sorry," Rory said, controlling the anger that was rising in her throat, "but did you just say that he had a girlfriend since we met?"

"Not exactly," Dean said hesitantly. "He liked her, but he was all caught up with Jess – they just kissed. That's all."

"So what, he thinks I slept with Lex?" Rory asked, her control slipping. "He's being a hypocrite!"

"He likes you, Rory," Dean tried to explain. "He's hardly being rational. Besides, Lex isn't exactly a good guy."

"So he thinks I don't like him, just because of Lex?" Rory assumed. "He just has no idea, does he."

"I think you should talk to him about that last bit, Rory," Dean pointed out. "He's got no idea because you haven't told him."

Rory stared at the ground morosely. "He'd blame himself."

"Blame himself for what?" Dean asked.

Rory sighed. She stood and began to pace as she said nervously, "For the past year, I've been... having dreams. Nightmares, actually. Ever since I met Sam."

"You've been having nightmares?" Dean reacted badly to this news, especially seeing as he didn't know the extent of Rory's powers – for all he knew, they were visions of the future, just like the ones Sam had.

"About Sam," Rory whispered blankly. "Horrible nightmares-" she shuddered.

"What happened in them?" Dean questioned.

Rory came and sat next to him once again. "There were four or five – types, I suppose you could say," she said tiredly. "There was one where Sam went bad, and I was still good and I had to stop him. One where we were both bad, and we destroyed the world."

"I can see why they were nightmares," Dean said, trying to get her to lighten up. It didn't work and he sighed, moving closer to her as he said awkwardly, "I've never been really good at comforting anybody, about anything."

Rory didn't move as Dean went on, "But, see, you and me, we're a little bit alike, I think. We both have our doubts about our place in the world – for different reasons, course. Me, it's cause I'm a hunter. It's what I do. It's the only life I've ever known."

"You were trained to be a killer." Rory's voice was soft and a little strained. "I was born to be a tyrant. You're right, Dean, we're not so different. We both have family we'd do anything to protect – except in your case, the ones you want to protect will actually let you."

There was silence for a moment.

"We can't stay here for long, you know." Dean spoke very quietly, as if he almost didn't want her to hear him say it. "We have to keep on the move – stop the authorities pinning us down."

"I guessed," Rory replied, her voice just as hushed. "You're just waiting for Jason, and then you're gone, right?" Though it was a question, there was no inflection at the end of the sentence.

"You're the main reason he wanted to come," Dean said to her. He didn't care what she did with the information – she knew already that Sam liked her, and how complicated it all was. It was up to her, what she did.

Rory shook her head unconsciously. "It's up to him. He's got more issues with – with everything, than I do. If he wants to... do... anything, then he has to do it, and not me. I'm not going to pressure him."

"Rory-" Dean crumpled up his hair in agitation. "But it's obvious what he wants, and what you want!"

"But you just said it yourself," Rory said defiantly. "Part of the reason he likes me is Jess, and that's the main reason why he won't..." she trailed off, determined not to put it into words. "Until he's over that, I'm going to stay his friend."

Dean sighed. "You know what the problem with this place is?"

Rory looked at him expressionlessly.

"It screws up his head, and so I want to leave, plus we really should be hunting," Dean explained. "But then it makes him so happy, and when we leave he'll be pissy till we get back. And it's all your fault, so I shouldn't like you. But I can't help it."

Rory cracked a smile and said, "I'm just a naturally likeable person."

Next morning
"Morning, Clark," Rory said, grabbing the juice off him before he could drink it and pouring some into a glass. "What did Lex say?"

Clark rolled his eyes at her and said, "He didn't say anything, of course. He denied having anything to do with anything. But you remember the cigar General Lane offered Dad?"

Rory nodded, sitting down with a bowl of cereal. "A Chavelo, wasn't that it?"

"Yep. Thing is," Clark said, sitting down with his own cereal, "Lex had a burnt out one in his ashtray."

"And Lex doesn't smoke," Rory grinned.

"So I think we should get into his office," Clark said, lowering his voice as footsteps came down the stairs.

"Relax, you guys, it's me," Dean said, holding up his hands.

In the lounge room, Sam sat up on his couch-bed, rubbing his eyes. Dean had taken over Clark's room now Lois was gone, and Clark had always been in with Rory.

"And I don't think me and Sam can come if you're going to be breaking into a military base," Dean continued.

"Why not?" Sam asked, walking into the kitchen. Rory looked up at him and unconsciously admired his shirtless body for a moment before snapping herself out of it and blushing.

"Superpowers," she said hastily. "You won't be able to keep up. And we can hardly get onto a military base without them."

"You've taken me along with your superspeed before," Sam pointed out. Clark looked at her accusingly.

Rory glared back at him before saying, "Besides, you two should see what you can dig up from here. Check LuthorCorp records, etc etc, see if they've bought any buildings lately. And one of you could go and see Lionel. Tell him that we sent you and I'm sure you'll get something."

Dean nodded and said, "I'll go, Sam's much better with the techno geek stuff than me."

It was Sam's turn to glare at his brother. He grabbed a nearby notepad and pen, writing something on it as he said, "Rory, this is my number. Call me if you find out where she is, Dean and I have something you don't have."

He ripped off the note and gave it to her. Rory memorised it as she asked, "And what would that be?"

"Guns," Sam replied icily.

A/N I know, I know... I'm a truly horrible person. But the thing is that the time I used to use to write is now time I spend at school, and I can't write, so updates will be less frequent. Plus, you know... Tasmania. :o) This story has first priority! And I'm not going to put it on hiatus or stop writing it, I promise. You guys rock!

By the way, hope you like the whole Rory-and-Dean conversation. I also hope it clears up a few things; like how Sam really feels. And sorry for being so repetitive. :o)